{"id":652663,"date":"2026-03-30T15:37:13","date_gmt":"2026-03-30T15:37:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/652663\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T15:37:13","modified_gmt":"2026-03-30T15:37:13","slug":"moellers-matt-ponatoski-named-a-rawlings-perfect-game-preseason-all-american","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/652663\/","title":{"rendered":"Moeller&#8217;s Matt Ponatoski named a Rawlings-Perfect Game Preseason All-American"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>SYCAMORE TOWNSHIP, Ohio \u2014 Moeller senior shortstop\/right-handed pitcher Matt Ponatoski was named this month as a <a class=\"Link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.perfectgame.org\/all_americans\/Default.aspx?Year=2026\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Rawlings-Perfect Game Senior Preseason All-American.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Ponatoski, who is signed with the <a class=\"Link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.wcpo.com\/sports\/high-school-sports\/moeller-senior-qb-matt-ponatoski-plans-to-sign-with-the-university-of-kentucky-on-wednesday\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">University of Kentucky for baseball and football,<\/a> is the only Ohio player on the prestigious preseason baseball first team.<\/p>\n<p>Moeller (2-0) opened its season this past weekend with two victories. Moeller defeated Lakota East 10-2 on March 28 and won 12-2 over Ryle on March 29.<\/p>\n<p>Ponatoski, ranked No. 1 in the <a class=\"Link\" href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/PrepBaseballOH\/status\/2033942725389603217?s=20\" rel=\"nofollow\">Prep Baseball Ohio rankings,<\/a> is 3-for-6 with four runs scored and three stolen bases through two games. He is hitting .500.<\/p>\n<p>Moeller is scheduled to play at La Salle at 5 p.m. Wednesday.<\/p>\n<p>Ponatoski, a Major League Baseball Draft prospect, told <a class=\"Link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.wcpo.com\/sports\/high-school-sports\/with-mlb-aspirations-and-scouts-watching-closely-moellers-matt-ponatoski-prepares-for-university-of-kentucky\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">WCPO 9 Sports<\/a> in mid-February that he had spoken with 27 MLB teams this winter. He has also studied the UK football playbook.<\/p>\n<p>The MLB Draft is July 11.<\/p>\n<p>Despite the spotlight, Ponatoski prefers to focus on helping to lead Moeller to a baseball state championship in June. Moeller has been a Division I regional runner-up the past two seasons.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I haven\u2019t won a state championship here,&#8221; Ponatoski said in February. &#8220;Is it about me? Not at all. It\u2019s about winning games and putting us in good spots to win games later in the year.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>SIGN UP: <a class=\"Link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.wcpo.com\/account\/manage-email-preferences\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Subscribe to our high school sports newsletter<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SYCAMORE TOWNSHIP, Ohio \u2014 Moeller senior shortstop\/right-handed pitcher Matt Ponatoski was named this month as a Rawlings-Perfect Game&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":652664,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2276],"tags":[5,535,28643,2291,4,1586],"class_list":{"0":"post-652663","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb-draft","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-cincinnati","10":"tag-cincinnati-high-school-sports","11":"tag-major-league-baseball-draft","12":"tag-mlb","13":"tag-mlb-draft"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116318873661133734","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/652663","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=652663"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/652663\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/652664"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=652663"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=652663"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=652663"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}